UAE reportedly sentences 3 Uzbek nationals to death over killing of Chabad rabbi
Abu Dhabi yet to officially confirm ruling against those who kidnapped, murdered Rabbi Zvi Kogan in November last year; friend of victim calls decision ‘historic’
Three men accused of killing Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates last year have been sentenced to death, Israeli sources in the Gulf state told Hebrew-language media Sunday.
There was no official confirmation from the UAE.
Kogan’s friend, Tzvi Grinhaim, told Channel 12 news that the decision is “historic.”
Kogan, a 28-year-old UAE-based rabbi with Israeli and Moldovan citizenship, went missing in Dubai in November 2024, and his body was found a few days later in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman.
The UAE is holding three suspects over the murder — Olimpi Toirovich, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim and Azizbek Kamlovich — all of them Uzbek nationals who were arrested in Turkey.
In December, The Wall Street Journal reported that the killers had kidnapped Kogan and planned to take him to neighboring Oman. The report said the three suspects were driving the rabbi toward the border until their plan was somehow disrupted.
Kogan worked to expand Jewish life in the UAE following the historic Abraham Accords that forged diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi, including ensuring the wide availability of kosher food and opening the first Jewish education center in the country.
He was buried in November at Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives cemetery.
Kogan’s wife, Rivky, joined him at the posting after their wedding in 2022. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was murdered along with his wife in a terror attack at the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai in 2008.
According to Kan, Israeli officials believed that Kogan’s killing was not necessarily carried out on behalf of Iran, but that it was a terror attack.
The Times of Israel Community.